An Iraqi man inspects the damage inside a mosque after an airstrike by the Iraqi army in Fallujah. / epa

by Jim Michaels, USA TODAY

by Jim Michaels, USA TODAY

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki authorized air support to help beleaguered Kurdish forces in the north, his government announced Monday, as Islamic militants battled for control of two dams that would allow the insurgents to trigger havoc with massive flooding.

The latest military developments offer further proof that the rebels command a powerful conventional force that poses an increasing threat to Baghdad, analysts said.

"It behaves more like an army than a terrorist network," Jessica Lewis, who tracks developments in Iraq at the Institute for the Study of War, said of the militants. Originally fighting under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the group now calls itself the Islamic State.

In western Iraq, where the militants have held sway, the rebels battled for control of the Haditha Dam, a massive hydroelectric structure on the Euphrates River. The Associated Press reported that militants were within 6 miles of the dam.

In the north, Kurdish forces attempted to stop the militants from seizing the Mosul Dam on the Tigris River. The militants captured most of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, June 9.

Control of the dams would allow the militants to manipulate power distribution or flood downriver communities, destroying farms and villages.

Over the weekend, they captured the northern towns of Sinjar and Zumar, driving Kurdish forces from the area.

The Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, are among the most disciplined and effective forces in Iraq. Their defeat is a major victory for the rebels and a setback for Iraq's government.

The militants are well-armed and have shown the ability to launch coordinated offensives to seize and hold ground, Lewis said. They are selectively targeting infrastructure, such as the dams, she said.

The progress in recent months has given militants a sense of momentum that will be hard to reverse, she said.

Many Sunnis in western Iraq and other parts of the country have supported the Islamic militants, viewing them as the only alternative to a Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad that they feel threatens them.

Waleed Alrawi, a retired Iraqi brigadier general living in Florida, said only a political solution that replaces al-Maliki as prime minister and creates a more inclusive government will turn Sunnis against the militants.

Iraqi lawmakers are forming a government in the wake of elections in April. Al-Maliki has said he would like to serve a third four-year term, but he faces pressure to step down, even from some in his own political party.

Sunni tribal leaders are waiting for a government solution, then will turn on the militants, Alrawi said, though he acknowledged the tribes are not strong enough to defeat rebels without support from the United States and its allies.